XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SAT, JUNE 26, 1999 20:20:12 ET XXXXX

NATIONAL COMPUTER SYSTEM TO MONITOR AMERICANS NAMES, ADDRESSES, SALARIES AND SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS

The WASHINGTON POST is planning a front page story for Sunday editions detailing an emerging federal computer system that monitors the names, addresses, salaries and Social Security numbers of virtually all adult Americans -- all in the name of tracking down parents who owe child support.

The POST's Robert O'Harrow Jr. describes a system that is currently in place due to the overhaul of welfare laws three years ago which now "calls for all employers to quickly file reports on every person they hire and, quarterly, the wages of every worker."

Beginning next month, the system creeps further.

"Large banks and other financial institutions will be obligated to search for data about delinquent parents by name on behalf of the government, providing authorities with details about bank accounts, money-market mutual funds and other holdings of those parents."

Harrow writes that the government officials feel the system is "safe, accurate and discreet."

However, a report by the General Accounting Office late last year claims the computer system at the Social Security Administration, which holds much of the data, "has known weaknesses in the security of its information systems."

Developing...

-- Jon Johnson (narnia4@usa.net), June 26, 1999

Answers

Call it Big Brother, call it Nazi america, Fathers of america have no rights. It's the Consititution in Shreads.

-- y2k aware mike (y2k aware mike @ conservation . com), June 26, 1999.

I'm sure there's more than a few women who owe back child support.

-- sick of hearing dead beat parents whine (paywhatyouowe@youranidiot.com), June 26, 1999.

You don't know the half of what "they" know about you...

welcome to der furhers' new republic...

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), June 26, 1999.

Do we even dare HOPE that Y2K crashes this system?

Now I KNOW that "deadbeat dads" is just an excuse (as is drugs) for this Big Brother spying. And it's spooky as hell. But I continue to hold out a couple slivers of hope:

1. Y2K bites Big Brother HARD where it counts.

2. Mother Goddess has a trick or two up her skirts. For example - I have known of SOME dads of the deadbeat persuasion to do things like transferring property, bank accounts etc. into the new honey's name to avoid childcare payments. Well, if that happened often enough (and esp. if it happened to those in positions of power with some serious bucks), there could one day come an AH HA moment when women suddenly realize that not only are they in the majority, but they now have all the bucks. Could be the dawning of a New Millennium INDEED!!! Move over Big Brother ... here comes BIG SISTER!

[I think I'll go make a margarita and meditate on that a while. C-ya]

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), June 26, 1999.

And look up the USPS (Postal "Service") "Know Your Customer" crap
USPS Form 1583 and Commercial Mail Receiving Agents (CMRA). All people using storefron postal mail receiving will soon have to add "PMB (box No.)" instead of unit/apartment/suite/etc.
AND FURTHER, NO MAIL WILL BE DELIVERED WITHOUT THE PROPER FORMAT, IT WILL BE RETURNED TO SENDER
(But, I'll bet if the IRS sends you a letter without the proper format, that you get it.)

Between the postal service, the "your papers please" to get a job, the government's objective is to compile a database of the CURRENT whereabouts of every person in the U.S.

Now, do you see why some of us hope that the whole system crashes, even though it likely will take us with it?

Bank runs will happen -- only 1% to 2% of accounts are available in actual cash. Withdraw early and often.

-- A (A@AisA.com), June 27, 1999.

Sometimes you get labeled a "dead beat dad" even though you are paying all the judge has ordered, plus some directly to the kids. If I wasn't living in a 21' house trailer on a construction site for the seven years I had to pay alimony and child support I would've been forced to live with mommy or under the Main St. Bridge. The judge gave the woman more than 3/4's of my take home. Of course he knew that I had a Saturday job which is where I got my living money.

Even though I was paying every month without fail the DA chick called one night and told me I owed thousands in back support. I produced an accounting of all my payments and she produced an order signed and sealed stating that I owed. X's liar, I mean lawyer, filed this while I wasn't looking and that should be illegal (I think it is) but what are you going to do. The cost of fighting would probably be more than the cost of paying, and they would win in the end. And if you don't pay then they simply go to your employer and take the money, or levy your finances. They know where your money is and there is no way to fight them. I had an account in LA and the IRS knew about it even though I had never told anyone about it. The bank sends the info on to Big Brother, I asked them and they told me so and that is how the IRS was able to levy my account.

It gets eviler and eviler.

-- Mark Hillyard (foster@inreach.com), June 27, 1999.

Mark,

glad that you are paying although you are obviously being victimised - there ARE ways around this, check out the loompanics books, also check out the artbell archives - there was a guy on who has a book out too telling you how to bypass the system/change identity etc. etc.

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), June 27, 1999.

Child support I don't mind, alimony should be outlawed everywhere. Alimony is based on the assumption that being married to me somehow damaged my ex wife. Crap on that. (No, I don't have an ex wife - but that is how that legal assumption works.)

If you check into it, you will find out that the same database you are talking about is also going to be used to track down people who aren't paying back school loans. Since that takes in one heck of a lot of professionals (doctors figured pretty high in the last published list), expect to hear some screaming from various professional groups such as AMA, IEEE and so on about 'misuse of private information'.

-- Paul Davis (davisp1953@yahoo.com), June 28, 1999.